Therapeutic Methacrylates: Elegant in their Simplicity

Big news! Zoe's paper, "Covalently-controlled drug delivery via therapeutic methacrylic tissue adhesives" has been published in the Emerging Investigators issue of the Journal of Materials Chemistry Part B. Called "elegant in its simplicity" by one insightful reviewer (with whom I obviously agree), Zoe used a simple chemical transformation to turn superglue into a smart surgical adhesive. Zoe covalently attached over the counter pain relievers (Aspirin, Advil, and Benzocaine) to methacrylate groups and incorporated them into an approved cyanoacrylate surgical adhesive. The tether bond she used was designed to release the therapeutic at a pre-determined rate, based on the rate of the reaction with water in the environment, conveniently providing pain relief and sterile wound closure. You can read her full paper here!